Name: For the idealist, against the idealist
Item: Purity
Author: fidodogstoyevsky

Purity →

by Jonathan Franzen

For the idealist, against the idealist

fidodogstoyevsky

Jul 27, 2025

I found Purity, which revolves around people who have variously relegated themselves to the fringes of society, immensely alienating.

This book delivers a great strike against the notion that the idealist is an exceptional individual, someone more enlightened, more autonomous, more principled than the droning masses, by showing how self-deluding and reactive the uptake of countercultural values can be.

Many people (including me) try not to believe in that level of determinism because it's frankly very depressing. I finished the book feeling nauseated. Not a comment on its quality. Truth hurts! I liked the style of the prose and on its face it is an interesting story about interesting people. I will definitely pick up Franzen again.

A T+1

2 comments

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tokyodrifter6 months ago

I haven't read Purity, but I have read (and loved) other Franzen novels. Sounds like this is your first? Based on your description, I think you'll like his other work. The Corrections and Freedom are great, and I hear great things about Crossroads too. His essays are also good; I love the one about birdwatching.

fidodogstoyevsky6 months ago

I like when authors are essayists also :) mentally filing this tidbit away for my commute